Mitch Darling bagged a hat-trick to pick up the tournament’s top-scorer award and Iain Walker was named the event’s best goalkeeper, capping his weekend with a brilliant penalty stoke save.

That occurred inside the first 10 minutes of today’s game as captain Ronan Gormley – on his 100th cap – endured a tough opening, first conceding the stroke and also picking up a yellow card.

He was to come out smiling, though, as he lifted the Celtic Cup, keeping it in Ireland for a third successive year.

With that sticky early patch negotiated, Ireland hit the front when Eugene Magee dragged to the right in the 18th minute to break the deadlock.

Five minutes later, Darling got his first of the day when he touched in Geoff McCabe’s reverse-stick cross. Alan Sothern dragged Ireland’s third, this time aiming to the goalkeeper’s left and a minute before the break Joe Brennan’s long pass unleashed Darling to punch home off his back foot for a four goal half-time lead.

Alan Giles bagged the fifth – his first senior international strike – when Paul Glelghorne laid up while Darling completed his hat-trick eight minutes from time. Peter Caruth completed the rout when he finished off a fine interchange with Magee.

Speaking after the match, manager Peter Jackson said: “This was an outstanding tournament for the Irish lads who put in maximum effort throughout all games.

"It is particularly pleasing to see that we only conceded one goal in the three matches and scored 14 in total and we look forward to our encounters against the French next weekend in Cookstown.”

Those matches begin on Thursday night in Coolnafranky with three games being played from June 30 to July 4.